Revised Objective: Ukamaku is an online fashion store, a platform for new fashion designers’ and small fashion retailers. Based in Toronto, Ukamaku promotes new local fashion designers and small fashion retailers in Canada and worldwide. However to promote themselves as a viable brand to a worldwide platform they must first have enough stability in their home country Canada. Ukamaku’s new objective should be an intense promotional campaign to raise brand awareness and increase their Canadian customer base.
Promote; Ukamaku is a Canadian brand, therefore promoting themselves in the Canadian fashion market is crucial. There are many popular Canadian fashion bloggers, who often promote fashion communities, and new designers, Ukamaku would seamlessly fit into their websites. Websites such as bleedforfashion.com, starvingstylist.com. Additionally there are great deal of fashion magazines, especially Canadian ones. Such as LOULOU and ELLE. Not only do these magazines create fashion events but if Ukamaku were to sponsor a fashion show for a new designer their brand would be further developed to those consumers.
Product: Its very difficult being a new designer especially in the United States and Canada. Therefore creating a fashion front to draw attention to new talent and to draw in passionate fashion followers allows the new designers to develop. The fashion business isn’t fair, a designer may do everything right and the product may still crash. Keeping this in mind websites like Ukamaku are taking a chance on the new designers line, because they have no basis on how the product will do. Ukamaku should focus on one gender. Since they service primarily females, they should stick to women’s only. Once they have stabilized this market, an opportunity to extend into the male market may exist. Their product lineup is complete, from shoes to earrings, and we’d agree it’s a balanced line up of categories. However, some categories are more full than others. For example, their handbag category is higher in the taxonomy than jewellery, yet it has much less content. We would recommend either balancing the content of each category, or at least re-ordering them based on content size. Their supply chain is already slim, they sell, source, ship. Purchase orders are sent to local designers when an order comes in, Ukamaku assembles the orders, and ships them in Ukamaku packaging to the customer. No recommendation needed here. Finally, products have a very short product life cycle, and are not updated, eliminating any versioning issues or confusion customers may have.
(No Revision done) Price; Ukamaku’s pricing is set high to match their target market. The strategy has been to exclude customers who cannot afford their brands and to improve how the brand is perceived. We don’t recommend any changes to their pricing strategy, as a decrease will offend their current customers. An increase will only reduce their target market further.
(No Revision done) Place: Ukamaku’s sales will all take place online. There is no physical location where customers can come to buy the products. Their warehouse will only house any inventory coming/going, and will provide a return address to customers. However, Ukamaku will regularly attend fashion/trade shows and promote their brand physically. As said above, they will give out free sizing kits to let women measure themselves and offer a free coupon to use the website.
Revised Objective: Ukamaku is an online fashion store, a platform for new fashion designers’ and small fashion retailers. Based in Toronto, Ukamaku promotes new local fashion designers and small fashion retailers in Canada and worldwide. However to promote themselves as a viable brand to a worldwide platform they must first have enough stability in their home country Canada. Ukamaku’s new objective should be an intense promotional campaign to raise brand awareness and increase their Canadian customer base.
Promote; Ukamaku is a Canadian brand, therefore promoting themselves in the Canadian fashion market is crucial. There are many popular Canadian fashion bloggers, who often promote fashion communities, and new designers, Ukamaku would seamlessly fit into their websites. Websites such as bleedforfashion.com, starvingstylist.com. Additionally there are great deal of fashion magazines, especially Canadian ones. Such as LOULOU and ELLE. Not only do these magazines create fashion events but if Ukamaku were to sponsor a fashion show for a new designer their brand would be further developed to those consumers.
Product: Its very difficult being a new designer especially in the United States and Canada. Therefore creating a fashion front to draw attention to new talent and to draw in passionate fashion followers allows the new designers to develop. The fashion business isn’t fair, a designer may do everything right and the product may still crash. Keeping this in mind websites like Ukamaku are taking a chance on the new designers line, because they have no basis on how the product will do. Ukamaku should focus on one gender. Since they service primarily females, they should stick to women’s only. Once they have stabilized this market, an opportunity to extend into the male market may exist. Their product lineup is complete, from shoes to earrings, and we’d agree it’s a balanced line up of categories. However, some categories are more full than others. For example, their handbag category is higher in the taxonomy than jewellery, yet it has much less content. We would recommend either balancing the content of each category, or at least re-ordering them based on content size. Their supply chain is already slim, they sell, source, ship. Purchase orders are sent to local designers when an order comes in, Ukamaku assembles the orders, and ships them in Ukamaku packaging to the customer. No recommendation needed here. Finally, products have a very short product life cycle, and are not updated, eliminating any versioning issues or confusion customers may have.
(No Revision done) Price; Ukamaku’s pricing is set high to match their target market. The strategy has been to exclude customers who cannot afford their brands and to improve how the brand is perceived. We don’t recommend any changes to their pricing strategy, as a decrease will offend their current customers. An increase will only reduce their target market further.
(No Revision done) Place: Ukamaku’s sales will all take place online. There is no physical location where customers can come to buy the products. Their warehouse will only house any inventory coming/going, and will provide a return address to customers. However, Ukamaku will regularly attend fashion/trade shows and promote their brand physically. As said above, they will give out free sizing kits to let women measure themselves and offer a free coupon to use the website.